Chick Pea “Sheppard’s” Pie

So to start off the first official blog post on here, I thought I’d try my hand at making “(ALMOST) CLASSIC CHICKPEA VEGAN MEATLOAF” by Connoisseurusveg. However, I apparently didn’t follow the recipe close enough, but from a small mistake, I ended up with a delicious chickpea Sheppard’s pie. Now, mine is technically vegetarian/pescetarian, as I was unable to find vegan Worcestershire sauce, but minus that, everything else is completely vegan. If you’re able to find the vegan alternative, go ahead and use it. Also, the original recipe required liquid smoke, which was sold out where I normally do groceries, so I substituted with a hickory bbq, using less than what was needed in the original recipe for the LS.

After draining and rinsing your chickpeas (don’t toss the liquid aka “aquafaba” from the chickpeas! Use it to make almost anything that require’s eggwhites!), cleaning and roughly dicing the celery, and roughly dicing the onions & carrots, toss everything into a food processor, and blend until everything is finely diced and almost a paste (but still “chunky”), then take half out and pulse the rest with the oil until it resembles what could be known as hummus – though it’s not. My processor wasn’t large enough to do this all at once, so I had to do this in batches. Once all processed, pour mix into a large bowl and fold everything together. Now start adding the tomato paste, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and the liquid smoke (or bbq sauce) in, then once combined, add the breadcrumbs and milk, 1 cup at a time, and continue folding until everything has come together.

Lightly spray a 6-10in pan (I used a foil pan so that it can be tossed out after & stored in the same container) and press the mixture in. If you’re like me and used a foil pan that is around 6in, you’ll have some leftover mixture – I made individual cupcake “pies” with this mix, but it’s up to you what you do with the leftover mix. From here, bake the pie for 45-60 mins, depending on the size (the smaller the pan, the deeper the pie will be, so you’ll need a longer bake time).

While your Sheppard’s pie base is in the oven, now’s the time to make the mashed potatoes, whichever way you normally make them. For mine, I used 3 small to medium russet potatoes, then boiled them in unsalted water, as I use salted margarine and vegetable stock when mashing. Top the pie with the mash when out of the oven, and broil at 400F for 10-15 mins, or until top is slightly browned.